“The dust has settled after the American Wind Energy Association’s meeting and tradeshow in Chicago, IL last week.”

“At this tradeshow, you could even find examples of modern day medicine shows.”

“Promises of a brave new energy future based on eye-catching, grandiose claims. There’s no way to know if these claims are valid because there’s no time to check. If you’re not on the bandwagon already you’ve missed the opportunity.”

“You could also find companies resting on their laurels. They are the “standard”, but that “standard” was established pre-1990. However, investment companies have nothing else to latch onto as a benchmark. So some companies are in the catbird seat because they dominate the industry with old science and technological superstition.”

Link provided:

“Medicine shows were traveling horse and wagon teams which peddled miracle medications and other products between various entertainment acts.”

“…It is shameful that GE, a highly profitable company, has decided to take advantage of faulty federal and state wind energy policies by producing turbines for “wind farms.”

“In addition to environmental damage…, wind power has an economic flaw that any GE engineer ought to be able to imagine: Since no human power can turn the wind on and off when it’s wanted for electricity, every bit of wind power capacity must be backed up by another generating source…Immelt, an engineer, understands this but he provided the executive’s counter argument:” “The customers want it, so it’s GE’s job to produce it.”

BJD editor’s note:

Jeffrey Immelt is the CEO and Chairman of the Board of GE, operating in more than 100 countries, employing over 300,000 people, with revenues of over $131 billion in 2002. Immelt concedes that he understands the flaws behind the premise that wind turbines provide any “solution.” GE is the U.S. largest wind turbine manufacturer.

Wall Street Journal moderated debate.

“Benjamin W. Heineman, Jr., has served as a senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of GE since 1997″:

“Mr. Heineman writes:”

“Fred, when Jeff Immelt announced this initiative he made absolutely clear it was about business and increasing profits. Our short form summary was, as I mentioned a moment ago, “green is green.”

“The whole initiative is market driven. We are not asking for government regulation. We believe our customers want this technology.”

“The clean tech sector is the fastest growing area of the venture asset class and fertile ground for growth and profits, said Ira Ehrenpreis, general partner, Technology Partners, and conference chairman. The environment and profit go hand in hand, according to Ehrenpreis. “Clean tech is all about the green, not the environment,” he said.”

Source, the Chairman of the Clean Tech Investor Summit: “The Clean Tech Investor Summit, now in its fifth year, brought venture capitalists and emerging clean tech companies from diverse sectors together in Palm Springs, CA, in January, for two days of panel sessions and networking opportunities.”

“But G.E. no longer makes any offshore turbines, according to Steve Fludder, the head of G.E.’s green business unit who sat own for a wide-ranging interview with the Times on Wednesday.”

“G.E. has instead focused its turbine business where it sees the vast majority of demand: on land.” “Offshore wind”, said Mr. Fludder, is “just a vastly costlier proposition – not for us but for the world.”

“Vestas, the world’s largest manufacturer of wind turbines, has today urged political leaders to focus more on increasing capacity from onshore wind farms, amid warnings that the cost of installing offshore wind turbines will continue to rise.”

Senior Vice President of Vestas Peter Kruse:

“The only way forward is more turbines in virgin ground onshore ,” and, “Politicians want offshore so they can avoid the Nimby discussion, but they are allowing a tiny minority to force the rest of the population to pay double for renewable energy.”

“General Electric Co. is seeking the refund of almost half the $358 million it paid to an Enron Corp. unit for wind-turbine manufacturing assets, lawyers told a federal bankruptcy judge in New York on Thursday. “It’s standard procedure,” said Dennis Murphy, a spokesman for GE Power Systems, who confirmed the company’s refund request. “Purchasers have certain protections built in. If the purchase price didn’t accurately reflect the value of the asset, we can petition,” he said.”

“Wind farms are failing to deliver value for money and distorting the development of other renewable energy sources, a report claims” “Excessive subsidies make them an expensive and inefficient way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, a study by the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) think-tank says.”

‘California study shows high cost of renewable power’ “While renewable power one day may compete with baseload power sources such as natural gas, coal and nuclear, it currently is more costly, and much less dependable.”

“The nation needs an ambitious plan to promote the deployment of wind and other renewable energy technologies – and the urgent first step it must take is to rapidly extend the expiring renewable energy credits, which are the primary incentive that the nation provides for these technologies today.”

“According to a March 26, 2008 report by the Daily News in Bangor, Maine, UPC Wind president and CEO Paul Gaynor said the company would do a better job in the future about letting local residents know what to expect from wind farms.

“I know there was an expectation (in Mars Hill) about what these were going to sound like,” Gaynor told the Daily News. “These are big structures and they do make sound.”

Shortly after Gaynor spoke to the Maine newspaper, the firm changed its name to First Wind. It was formerly known as Global Winds Harvest/UPC.

“The country’s energy companies are not convinced that wind power is the way of the future. Management at Denmark’s energy companies, DONG Energy and Vattenfall, do not subscribe to the current mindset that wind energy will be especially prominent in the future, reported national public broadcaster DR. The companies believe that coal-powered electricity will still be the largest supplier of the nation’s energy, despite the trend toward environmentally friendly sources.

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